Anything Can Happen in Oak Lawn's Wild Village Board Races

It’s almost over. After six months of posturing, spleen venting, mudslinging, show-tune singing and viral-ops, Patch commenting, Oak Lawn residents who didn’t vote early will head to the polls tomorrow.

Many people have asked who we think will win the mayoral, clerk and trustee races. The answer is: we don’t know.

Read up on all the Oak Lawn Village Board candidates at Election Central 2013.

Two years ago, election night was shaping up to be one of the most boring evenings we ever spent, when Dan Sodaro came within eleven votes of squeezing out the four-term incumbent, Bob Streit, who had Sodaro tossed off the ballot for third district trustee.

So we don’t know how the hell these races will turn out.

With so many uncontested races for our local school, park and library boards, voter turnout will be key. In 2011, voter turnout was a miniscule 17 percent.

Early voting tallies for 2013 are 1,830, out of 35,900 registered voters in Oak Lawn. Candidates would be wise to have a good ground game on Election Day, namely picking up and/or walking people to the polls. 

Mayor’s Race – Mayor Dave Heilmann declared his i including political novices with established records of volunteerism and community involvement, and at least one experienced officeholder.

Some have criticized the mayor of fielding a weak slate of candidates. We think that criticism is unfair, especially since voters never got the chance to compare the clerk and trustee candidates side by side in a candidate’s forum. Every trustee candidate we spoke wanted a forum.

The mayor has spoken glowingly of his new slate of “parents who want to take the village board back from the politicians.”

Heilmann has lacerated his former Unity Party slate mates in his campaign literature, particularly Trustees Alex Olejniczak (Dist. 2) and outgoing Trustee Tom Phelan (Dist. 6). Heilmann has blamed all of his former running mates for failing to move Oak Lawn forward because of bickering and political brinkmanship.

Southtown-Star columnist Phil Kadner remarked of the mayor’s performance in last week’s forum that while demonstrating a superior knowledge of government, “in the very least [has] proven himself a poor judge of character if his own low opinion of his former running mates is valid.”

Kadner further stated of Heilmann’s leadership abilities: “A leader ought to be judged on his ability to appoint trustworthy people to key posts and ally himself with individuals who put the community above personal differences.”

Dr. Sandra Bury is an optometrist and local business owner with no government experience. The single, 51-year-old medical professional construed a statement the mayor made in his Oak Lawn Patch questionnaire that people without children would fail to understand the needs of young Oak Lawn families.

Bury has also aligned herself with those village board members whom the mayor has claimed are the reason why Oak Lawn is currently being investigated by the feds because of illegal activities related to the hiring and firing of the former village attorneys.

Bury's ten-page manifesto, “$10 Million Too Late …” criticizing he mayor for losing millions of taxpayer dollars because of inept legal counsel, was sent to thousands of Oak Lawn residents and even some outside of the village limits. Her agressive campaign often termed as negative, has both won and lost her supporters.

She, too, has seized on the second federal subpoena served on the village in as many years for alleged bid tampering by the mayor’s new ally and former board nemesis, Trustee Bob Streit (Dist. 3). Streit has kept a low profile during the campaign.

Heilmann, who cast the tie-breaking vote in the hiring of a roofing firm, which employed Streit’s brother, has since claimed a political setup by Phelan.

Bury maintains that the mayor didn’t read his board packet. Patch doesn’t know if the board packet mentioned that Streit’s brother worked for the firm that provided the winning bid.

Kadner questioned whether Bury could muster the assertive leadership “in what has become a very rough political environment in Oak Lawn.”

Village Clerk – Mayor Heilmann ascertains that he needs a village clerk whom he can trust, not one who’s going to sue him. Jane Quinlan, the popular two-term incumbent clerk, lost a lawsuit that she and three other trustees filed against Heilmann for improperly dispensing the Unity Party’s remaining campaign coffers in 2011. The mayor has also accused Quinlan of keeping documents from him, such as the federal criminal subpoena from June 2011, but Quinlan says she was told keep it confidential by the village attorneys. Political novice Melissa Moran is the mayor’s running mate. She’s a teacher at St. Germaine and touted by Heilmann as the most principled person he’s ever met, which is how he used to introduce Village Clerk Quinlan. Moran may have an uphill battle, then again, she is leading Patch's unscientific election poll. The village clerk is the only full time elected official and does not vote.

Dist. 1 Trustee – Some have hinted that this is the race that could tip the balance of power back to the board's "anti-Heilmann trustees." Cindy Trautsch is running for elected office for the first time on the mayor’s slate, although she’s served as an appointed trustee since August 2011. Trautsch is rough around the edges in her understanding of local government. As a CPA, she doesn’t appear to draw from her professional background in her stewardship of the taxpayers’ dollars. Instead she seems more focused on blasting the village manager for not bringing back the hardcopy community newspaper that used to cost $40,000 a quarter to print and mail to Oak Lawn residents. Traustsch is running against political novice Tim Desmond, a restaurant owner and union building engineer. Desmond is aligned with the Oak Lawn First alliance, that is backing Bury for mayor.

Dist. 2 Trustee – Two-term incumbent Alex Olejniczak is running against the mayor’s slated candidate, challenger Julie Misner. Olejniczak has a finely tuned constituent services program in place. Retiring Oak Lawn Police Chief Bill Villanova also singled Olejniczak out for his record as the former police liaison. Misner was elected to the Dist. 123 school board in 2009 and is a lifelong resident of Dist. 2. As an elected school board official, Misner claims experience in dealing with budgetary constraints, staffing, union contract negotiations and the hiring of two district superintendents. Olejniczak stands firmly behind Bury for mayor.

Dist. 4 Trustee – Trustee Tom Duhig is running for his second term on the village board as part of the Oak Lawn First ticket. His opponent, a retired, Oak Lawn Police division chief, claims Duhig lacks a cohesive plan for balancing the concerns of Dist. 4 residents with the expansion of Advocate Christ Medical Center. Duhig maintains he never saw Vorderer at all the community and planning commission meetings he attended related to hospital expansion. The mayor’s slated candidate Tim Reilly is an appointed planning and development commissioner for the village. Reilly also sits on Advocate Christ’s patient review board.Reilly sas the village should have collected an impact or construction permit fees from the medical center. Vorderer could take this race but this is a guess, the way one wagers on a video gaming machine. It's not an endorsement.

Editor: Mr. Reilly's stand on Advocate Christ paying an impact and/or construction permit fees to the village has been clarified. We apologize to Mr. Reilly.

Dist. 6 Trustee – The current D123 school board president Joe Sorrentino was the last candidate to jump into the sixth district race. Sorrentino is aligned with no slate or party. He’s another independent that, if elected, could calm the volatile village board. Mike Carberry is aligned with Oak Lawn First. He served six months as the 35th District Illinois state representative after being appointed to fill a vacancy. Carberry voted for the state’s 67-percent state tax increase before retiring from the state legislature as an appointed lame deck, but then so did a lot of other people. He certainly has the most signs up in the sixth district. Carol Sheahan is running with the mayor’s slate. She’s a devoted mom taking time out to raise three young daughters, and has a strong corporate business background. Don’t write her off just yet.

What are your predictions for the Oak Lawn Village Board races? Tell us in the comments.